Aims: The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of phytopharmaceutical prescription in patients with urinary tract infection (UTI) and pinpoint the factors influencing phytopharmaceutical prescription by general practitioners, urologists, and gynecologists.
Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was based on data from the Disease Analyzer database (IQVIA) and included patients with a diagnosis of UTI or acute cystitis in 1,132 general (GP), 238 gynecologist, and 91 urologist practices in 2019. The prevalence of phytopharmaceutical prescription was estimated, and a multivariable logistic regression model was used to study the association between predefined variables and phytopharmaceutical prescription and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were estimated.
Results: In total, 83,905 individuals treated by GPs, 10,456 treated by gynecologists, and 30,637 treated by urologists were diagnosed with UTI in 2019. Of these patients, 8.4% (95% CI: 8.2 - 8.6) treated by GP, 8.5% (95% CI: 8.0 - 9.1) treated by gynecologists, and 4.8% (95% CI: 4.6 - 5.0) treated by urologists received a phytopharmaceutical prescription. Practice preference for phytopharmaceutical prescription (OR: 6.09 by GPs, OR: 2.20 by urologists, OR: 11.03 by gynecologists), female sex (OR: 2.34 by GPs, OR: 6.54 by urologists) and private health insurance (OR: 1.97 by GPs, OR: 2.33 by gynecologists, OR: 1.98 by urologists) were associated with increased odds of phytopharmaceutical prescription.
Conclusion: Our data show that phytopharmaceuticals have a relatively low prevalence in the treatment of UTIs. Moreover, practice-related factors, concretely phytopharmaceutical preference, seem to play an important role in prescribing prevalence and should be studied in more detail in the future studies.